BEDBUGS

Immediate relief is coming with Barton’s Pest Services, offering proven technics to rid your home completely of any infestation.

Barton’s Pest Services offer experienced and thorough technicians that follow strict techniques and make a point of examining every area of your home.

Why You Have Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs are excellent hitchhikers, and are often very capable of traveling with an unsuspecting host. They commonly travel in luggage, backpacks, or even in our clothing to any destination. Infestations can be spread by a visiting friend, or by even by a domestic help worker These bugs have been found in airplane seats, trains, cabs, hotel rooms, and even doctor’s offices.

General Facts:

Bed bugs are small parasitic insects that feed on the blood or animals. Adult bed bugs will have a reddish-brown color with flattened oval-shaped bodies that are about ¼ inch in length. They have segmented abdomens with microscopic hairs that give them a banded appearance. They may be mistaken for other insects, such as booklice, small cockroaches, or carpet beetles, however when warm and active, their movements are more ant-like, and like most other bugs, they emit a characteristic disagreeable odor when crushed.

The females will lay eggs in batches of about 5 per day. These eggs are small, and approximately 1mm in size and whitish in color. This makes them very had to find. As they hatch, they are about the size of a poppy seed but in about 30 to 60 days the newborn bed bugs will be grown and ready to lay their own eggs. Though many people have no reaction to Bed Bug bites, some experience small red welts that often appear in a line or cluster and may be itchy or painful. Serious health problems can occur if the bites become infected.

Biology

As the female bed bug lays her eggs (i.e., one to five per day and 200-500 within her lifetime); she uses a clear substance to attach them in cracks and on rough surfaces. Under ideal conditions, eggs hatch in about seven days and the nymphs molt five times, taking a blood meal between each molt. Development time from egg to adult is 21 days. The adult can live for almost one year and can survive for that time without a meal.

Habits:

Bed Bugs hide in cracks and crevices during the day, preferring to rest on wood and paper surfaces instead of stone, metal, or plaster. It leaves these harborage areas at night to feed on its host, which include humans, birds, hogs, and family pets. The blood meal requires three to ten minutes and usually goes unnoticed by the victim. After feeding, the bite site may become inflamed and itch severely in sensitive people. Over time, the harborage areas become filled with the molted skins, feces, and old egg shells of the resident bed bugs. These areas have a characteristic “stick bug” smell caused by secretion emitted by the bed bug.

Bed Bug Infestation Clues:

Bed bugs are attracted by warmth and carbon dioxide. They are the most active at night because that is when we are warm and sleeping, making people great targets for bed bugs.

Bed Bug Signs:

Tiny brown droppings

Exoskeletons, or “cast skins” shed by growing nymphs

Tiny white eggs and egg casings

Bite marks or rashes on the skin (note: not all people develop rashes to the bug bites, and there may not be a visible pattern of skin marks)

Your Fastest Solution to Your Pest Problems The most frequently asked question we get is: "how fast can you get here"? We respond to like every pest problem is an emergency, 24 Hours a Day, Seven Days a Week. Call (661) 398-2151 or e-mail.